1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a surgical instrument. More particularly, the present disclosure relates a surgical instrument that is a knife with a blade that avoids movement once positioned. Such a knife can be used during, for example, laparoscopic surgery.
2. Description of Related Art
Surgical knives are sometimes equipped with a sheath that has a blade extendable beyond the coverage of a protected sheath. In use, a surgeon will actuate a mechanism that causes a knife blade to project out from or back into a protective sheath. Thus, a surgeon will position the knife in the vicinity of a site where a cut is to be made prior to the incision or cut. Then, the surgeon will actuate the knife, urging the knife blade toward the site.
As well known in the art, surgical procedures require use of surgical instruments including surgical knives in a precise manner. The aforementioned sheathed knives have an inherent imprecision. More specifically, since the knife blade is movable, a surgeon cannot use the handle to precisely locate the blade at a desired surgical point of incision, but instead can only position the sheath near the desired surgical incision point. Further, such a knife also has an inherent spring back movement. This movement hampers precision alignment.
Presently, surgeons deal with the aforementioned shortcomings in at least two ways. The first way involves the surgeon positioning the knife close to a desired incision or cut location. The surgeon will estimate the distance the knife blade will protrude from the protective sheath. The surgeon will then move the sheath to approximately this distance. Next, the surgeon will slowly extend the blade from the sheath toward the cut location, visually monitoring and physically compensating for any imprecision in the estimated distance. The second way that surgeons deal with the aforementioned shortcomings of surgical knives involves the surgeon positioning the sheath tip at the location of the desired incision. Then, the surgeon will simultaneously urge the knife blade towards the surgical site and move the handle of the knife away from the surgical site, again visually monitoring and physically compensating for any imprecisions in movement.
Accordingly, there is a need for a surgical knife that prevents movement and forces on the knife blade and that allows a surgeon to position the knife with better precision than heretofore.